A blog about developments in the nongovernmental, nonprofit, charitable sector in China.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

End of China's one-child policy will ease pressure on gays and lesbians to bear children

This op-ed by Tim Hildebrandt appeared in the South China Morning Post
on November 9, 2015, soon after the Communist Party leadership announced they
would end the one-child policy and allow Chinese families to have two children.
With Tim’s permission, I’m reposting it here because it looks at the impact of
the one-child policy on one marginalized group in China that rarely gets much
consideration and yet is quite active in the NGO sector – the LGBT community.

End of
China's one-child policy will ease pressure on gays and lesbians to bear
children

The Communist Party intended to help
the struggling Chinese economy when it overturned the country's infamous
one-child policy last week. The decision to rescind the policy will undoubtedly
be welcomed by the country's growing middle class, the next generation of
Chinese who will now have the prospect of knowing what it means to have a
sister or brother, and corporations who are relishing an even larger market.
But one group that the party never considered is also likely to benefit:
China's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

The one-child
policy never mentioned homosexuality. But its ill effects over the decades have
fallen disproportionately on the country's LGBT community. Numerous surveys of
gays and lesbians in the country consistently reveal that family pressure is of
utmost concern. Indeed, in the decade-long research I have conducted on these
issues in China, I found that gay and lesbian citizens consistently ranked
family pressure as the biggest obstacle they face. One chance at raising a
child who meets all of the expectations of parents put enormous burdens on gays
and lesbians, keeping them in the closet and contributing to high rates of
depression and suicide. The pressure to produce grandchildren is acute.

The desire for
grandchildren isn't, of course, limited to China. But the obsession often leads
to pressure on gay and lesbian children to conform to a heterosexual life and
produce offspring. In China, the
expectations for continuing the family line to fulfil ancestral obligations are
often extreme. Still, the push to be grandparents has as much to do with
material concerns as worries about the afterlife. In this respect, another
policy change in the last decade has created a decidedly material incentive for
families to pressure their only child into living a straight life and producing
a grandchild: the government's dismantling of cradle-to-grave support. Elderly
care, once guaranteed by the state, has been severely cut, partly because of
the assumption that one's children and their grandchildren can fill the gap
left by the state and take care of them. And so, in essence, the pressure that
gay and lesbian Chinese feel is not only due to the risk of hurting the
family's reputation, but something very material: the parents view a gay or
lesbian child as a potential threat to their care as they age. Because both in
vitro fertilisation and adoption are difficult, "traditional" and
"natural" male-female births are seen as the only option for parents.

In its 35-year
history, the one-child policy has long been used by government critics in the
international community as evidence of its callous view of human rights.
Activists have derided the effect it has had on unwanted pregnancies and
children: stories of sex-selective abortions, newborn girls abandoned in public
toilets, and even female infanticide have become regular news fodder. But Beijing's
decision has far more to do with demographic forces than human rights concerns,
whether they be concerned with forced abortions or social pressure on LGBT
people. The policy was intended to curb population growth that the party could
not afford while also developing a modern economy. It is being rolled back now
because, ironically, the government can't afford to keep it in place. With
fewer young people entering the workforce, the country is less able to support
the larger number of aged citizens.

The policy
shift will certainly not be an instant panacea for gays and lesbians. Family
pressures are likely to remain, and changing the policy will be too late for
the current generation of gay and lesbian young adults. Hopefully, the
possibility to have an "heir and a spare" will ease the pressure
placed on gay and lesbian Chinese, allowing them to live a more open and less
stressful adult life. Although it was not the intent of Beijing, easing
limitations on births should go far in helping to build a more respectful
environment for gays and lesbians across the nation.

Dr Timothy Hildebrandt is assistant professor of social policy and
development at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is the
author of Social Organizations and the Authoritarian
State in China (Cambridge University Press, 2015), and researches and writes on LGBT activism and related policy issues in China
and around the world.